Ontario eyes two-year teacher salary freeze

TORONTO — The Ontario government wants to freeze teachers’ salaries for two years and strip away a generous benefit that allows them to bank 200 sick days before retirement, the government said Thursday as it revealed its negotiating position for the next set of provincewide contracts.

The unusual disclosure from the Liberal government comes after the largest elementary teachers union walked out of negotiations, which started on Wednesday, calling the offer a non-starter.

“It’s laughable. It’s a joke,” said Peter Giuliani, president of the Ottawa-Carleton Elementary Teachers Federation, which represents 3,000 teachers in the Ottawa-Carleton board. “I’ve been doing union work for 25 years, and I’ve never seen something so insulting.”

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In all but a few cases, Ontario teachers receive 20 sick days per year and are allowed to accumulate 200. Those days are paid out at 50% of their salary in the final year of work for a maximum $46,000.

Education Minister Laurel Broten said the benefits are “not sustainable and not in line with the current fiscal reality we have in the province.”

The sick-day payout will cost taxpayers $118-million in 2011-12, she said, and is rising each year. In total, the government says it has resulted in a $1.7-billion liability.

Ontario is grappling with a $16-billion deficit and has been told that figure could nearly double within five years unless it moves to contain costs.

The government is offering teachers six sick days per year, similar to what Ontario public service workers are entitled to, in a new two-year agreement. Teachers off work for more than six days would be forced to go on short-term medical leave at 66% of their salary.

Elementary teachers lost a battle with the province in 2008 and ultimately accepted a less valuable contract than their secondary school colleagues.

Teacher contracts expire on Aug. 31. Mr. Giuliani could not say whether his members are headed for a strike.

The teachers have benefited from Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government, with the average teacher salary rising 34% over the past eight years, to $83,500. Over the same period, elementary teachers have gained 50% more preparation time. They now have 240 minutes per week.

In return, teachers were one of a number of union groups that worked to re-elect the Liberals to a third consecutive election victory in October 2011.